In my out of state areas, I pay to have the homes rented for me, but I manage some of them myself when they have long term leases and excellent credit tenants.In my lower economic areas, which actually produce more cash flow, I have a property manager and he is well worth the money. 

What's the worst economic decision you can make?

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) recently amended several sections of this law, extending the time period for certain activities.

When the fed tried to tighten the money supply in 2005-2006 all the good folks with ARM's suffered,on top of that were the hits from storms in 2004 and 2005 causing home insurance to spike in the gulf states.On top of that increased fuel prices.The soaring price of oil was a big factor that took time to effect economic growth.It was a perfect storm.This is different,oil is down which will spur spending and allow people to improve their credit by paying down debt,it also helps with job creation.ARM's are being replaced by fixed loans and insurance rates are starting to stabilize and even drop.Banks are tighter with lending standards and irresponsible borrowing is not as easy to do.There will be a slow down because the fed is trying to wean us off the easy money sugar rush,but they can't because it will make the dollar to strong against world currencies and that will cause a slow down in the rest of the world which will feed back to the U.S.If the fed jacks up rates then we will probably be looking at another prolonged downturn.I would hope that they see that but they missed it in 2006 and they are still expecting a bubble but the liquidity is only flowing to the top 10% creating a billionaire bubble.

I'm graduating in May 2016 from the University of Iowa (Economics, BBA) and will be moving to Wichita, KS in June to start work for a fortune 500 company.

My wife and I have built a modest economic future, hopefully one that will include a bambino/a or two in the near future, and we have all we need to keep ourselves...content.  

The repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banks from Wall Street risks after such activities caused widespread bank failure in the early 1930’s.Wall Street’s ability to conceal the financial sickness that lay beneath until some of the key corporations (such as Goldman Sachs) had purchased credit default swaps to be on the “winning” side of the economic crash.

The Federal Reserve (of Philly) maintain most of the demographic and economic data that you could think of, census data, etc.

I also love browsing book stores and examining the TOC, Index and skimming a few paragraphs - - it's not a waste of time and you and your significant other can always go to dinner thereafter :)Here's the path we took to our MFU 6-units:looked for a property which produced a cash flow - - not interested in property appreciation values, but needed to avoid red inkthis implies learning how to evaluate a rentals economic health and value (what are GSI, NOI, expense ratio, DSCR, cash/cash and cap rates). 

I also learn about the larger economic issues as you see those things trickle down to the housing market.